Obama won’t go after states for legalizing marijuana; ‘wouldn’t go that far’ to make pot legal

legalized

Colin Diltz/The Associated Press

Nicola Thompson (centre) lights her pipe with Toby Tackett (right) and Scott Newsome as they celebrate legalization of marijuana in Seattle, Washington, Dec. 6, 2012, at the Seattle Center International Fountain.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama said Friday he won’t go after Washington state and Colorado for legalizing marijuana, leaving supporters of the movement cautiously optimistic that a showdown with federal law won’t happen.

In a Barbara Walters interview airing Friday on ABC, Obama was asked whether he supports making pot legal. “I wouldn’t go that far,” he said.

But the president, who has admitted smoking pot when he was younger, won’t pursue the issue in the states where voters in November legalized the use of marijuana. The drug remains illegal under federal law, but the Justice Department has been vague about what its specific response would be.

“It does not make sense from a prioritization point of view” to focus on drug use in states where it is now legal, Obama said. Marijuana became legal in Washington state last week. It became legal in Colorado earlier this month.

Marijuana activists were relieved at Obama’s comments, but they still had questions about how regulation will work. They said even if individual users aren’t charged with crimes, marijuana producers and sellers could be subject to prosecution, civil forfeiture and other legal roadblocks.

Obama simply told Walters that going after “recreational users” would not be a “top priority.”

Legalization activists in Colorado tried and failed to get the president to take a stand on the marijuana measure on his many campaign trips to the battleground Western state.

“It was frustrating,” said Joe Megyesy, a spokesperson for Colorado marijuana legalization group. “Here’s the president, an admitted marijuana user in his youth, who’s previously shown strong support for this, and then he didn’t want to touch it because it was such a close race.”

Marijuana is a crop that can’t be insured, and federal drug law prevents banks from knowingly serving the industry, leaving it a cash-only business that’s difficult to regulate.

“I’m wondering what sort of things are going to happen now on the civil side of things,” Megyesy said. “It seems like (Obama) was talking strictly about the criminal side, which is great, but doesn’t the answer the question of how the Department of Justice is going to respond to this.”

Possession of up to one ounce (28 grams) of marijuana is now legal for adults over 21 in both Washington and Colorado.

Washington’s Liquor Control Board now has a year to adopt rules for the fledgling pot industry.

Colorado’s marijuana measure requires lawmakers to allow commercial pot sales, and a state task force that will begin writing those regulations meets Monday.

State officials have reached out to the Justice Department seeking help on regulating a new legal marijuana industry but haven’t had a response.